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by Daphne Patai (Author)
The Orwell Mystique: A Study in Male Ideology is a pioneering work of feminist literary criticism that subjects the life and writing of George Orwell (1903-1950) to a sustained and rigorous feminist analysis. Published in 1984--the same year as the famous date in Orwell's most celebrated dystopian novel--the book examines all of Orwell's major novels, essays, and journalism and argues that his widely celebrated reputation for moral authority and plain-speaking democratic decency is fundamentally undercut by a pervasive and condescending attitude toward women.
Author Daphne Patai contends that Orwell's work is saturated with a male ideology so deeply embedded as to be largely invisible to mainstream criticism, which had long treated Orwell as an exemplar of intellectual honesty and political courage while overlooking the gender assumptions that structure his writing. Drawing on feminist theory and close textual analysis, Patai systematically traces the ways in which Orwell's androcentrism--his tendency to place men and male experience at the center of human life--shapes not only his fiction but also his essays, autobiographical writings, and political commentary.
The book is organized around a series of thematic and textual investigations. An introductory chapter establishes what Patai calls "the Orwell myth"--the cultural phenomenon by which Orwell's personal authority as a moral and political guide has been constructed and sustained. Subsequent chapters examine specific dimensions of Orwell's work and biography, including his experience of empire and the masculine codes embedded in his writings about colonialism; his treatments of vagabondage, manual labor, and working-class masculinity (notably in works such as Down and Out in Paris and London and The Road to Wigan Pier); and the androcentrism running through Nineteen Eighty-Four, in which Patai argues that the novel's treatment of women, sexuality, and the body reflects deeply patriarchal assumptions. The book also addresses Orwell's essays and journalism, situating his gender ideology within the broader context of mid-twentieth-century British patriarchal culture.
At the time of its publication, The Orwell Mystique was one of the first book-length feminist examinations of Orwell, and it generated significant scholarly debate. It remains an important and frequently cited work in both Orwell studies and feminist literary criticism.
Author Biography
Daphne Patai is a scholar and author who has held faculty positions in Women's Studies and in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she has also taught Brazilian literature and literary theory. She has published widely in the fields of feminist theory, literary criticism, and the politics of higher education. Her other books include Professing Feminism: Education and Indoctrination in Women's Studies and contributions to the edited volume Theory's Empire.
